THE SALTON SEA�

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AGENDA

Introduction​

History

​Impact

Decline

​Fixing? Good news…

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HISTORY

• Salton Sink-Naturally made large depression
• 240 feet below sea level
• The Colorado River has occasionally drained into the Salton Sink during the last 5 million years. (Mueller)
• An endorheic lake
• The process of flooding and drying left behind salts in the soils of the ‘Salton Trough’
• 1905, the Colorado meander broke a ‘levy’, railroad trestle to flood the Salton Sink and

create today’s lake. This break lasted from 1905 to 1907.

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In the 1950s and ‘60s, resorts emerged and attracted flocks of vacationing families and celebrities. … a booming tourist attraction that attracted families and celebrities like Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys and Sonny Bono. It was “marketed as a ‘miracle in the desert’” it would regularly attract over half a million visitors annually. LAT 12-30-2022

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The lake is largely fed by runoff from farms in California’s Imperial Valley, who use Colorado River water to grow many of the nation’s winter vegetables as well as feed crops such as alfalfa. As the farmers reduce their water use, less flows into the lake. California said it would reduce its reliance on the over-tapped river only if the federal government put up money to mitigate the effects of less water flowing into the sea. LAT 11-28-2022

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• The lake has been shrinking since the early 2000s, when the Imperial Irrigation District began selling a portion of its water to growing urban areas under an agreement with agencies in San Diego County and the Coachella Valley.
• The lake’s level has declined about 11 feet since 2003. Its water is now about twice as salty as the ocean and continues to get saltier with evaporation.

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By the 1990s, the lake’s eutrophic conditions were leading to mass die-offs of fish and birds. In recent years, rising salinity has further limited food sources for birds. LAT 10-5-2022

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The southeastern corner of California has some of the worst air pollution in the country, where dirt from farmland and the open desert mixes with windblown clouds of toxic dust rising from the Salton Sea’s receding shores.

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Laced with pesticides such as DDT and heavy metals that have accumulated in the lake over decades.

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Imperial County has the highest rate of asthma-related emergency room visits for children in California.

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Attempts to fix…

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…involve desalinating seawater in Mexico, at the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, and sending it north across the border. The panel concluded that California shouldn’t pursue such a plan, citing costs estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, harm to the coastal environment and a construction timeline that would take many years before any water would reach the lake, costing $65.7 billion or $78.4 billion.

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Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge

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The refuge has the distinction of having the most diverse bird species of any national wildlife refuge in the West with over 400 different species recorded and continues to be a birding hotspot for rare vagrant species.

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/sonny-bono-salton-sea/species?$skip=30

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